Half-races or ancestral blood as feats?

Theo R Cwithin

I cast "Baconstorm!"
I've been hunting for "blood feats" that turn half-races into feats, but my google-fu is failing me. I've found Iain Fyffe's "Bloodline Levels" to be useful, but that focuses on higher-power lineages, as does the UA variant for Bloodlines upon which it's based. There's also this thread from a while back, but it's not really followed up - though it's a good start (which I may build upon).

Basically I'm looking for a feat system that would help me add traits from long lost races into a humans only (for now!) campaign.

So... any pointers or suggestions on doing this? Are there any resources (or house rules) out there that address more mundane heritages (eg, dwarven, elven, orc, etc) in a consistent fashion?
 

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A rough idea, for the core races.....

Dwarfblooded (General)
Your bloodline has some dwarven ancestors.
Prerequisite: Humanoid without the Dwarf subtype.
Benefit: You gain the Stonecunning racial trait of a Dwarf, except with a +1 bonus instead of a +2 bonus. Furthermore, you gain a +1 racial bonus on Fortitude saves, and on saves against poison, spells, or spell-like effects, which stacks with itself when appropriate.
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.

Dwarven Heritage (General)
You have strong elements of dwarven bloodlines mixed into your own.
Prerequisite: Dwarfblooded.
Benefit: You gain the Stability racial trait of a Dwarf, but at a +2 bonus instead of a +4 bonus. You also gain Darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. However, you suffer a -1 racial penalty on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Gather Information skill checks, as you inherited dwarven gruffness and ego.
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.

Elfblooded (General)
Your bloodline has some elven ancestors.
Prerequisite: Humanoid without the Elf subtype.
Benefit: You require only 4 hours of sleep each day, instead of 8 (even for purposes of regaining spells or power points). You receive a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against charm or sleep effects. Furthermore, you receive a +1 racial bonus on Listen and Spot skill checks.
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.
Alternative: If half-elves are to be represented by this feat, the feat instead grants a half-elf's trance, immunity to magical sleep spells and effects, a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against Enchantment spells and effects, and a +1 racial bonus on Search checks.

Elven Heritage (General)
You have strong elements of elven bloodlines mixed into your own.
Prerequisite: Elfblooded.
Benefit: You enjoy a +1 racial bonus on Balance and Search skill checks. You also gain a +1 racial bonus on Reflex saving throws, but suffer a -1 racial penalty on Fortitude saving throws. Lastly, you get a +1 bonus on ranged attack rolls made beyond the first range increment.
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.
Alternative: If half-elves are to be represented by this feat, the feat instead grants a half-elf's Low-Light Vision, a +1 racial bonus on Listen and Spot checks, a +2 racial bonus on Diplomacy and Gather Information checks, the Elf subtype (but does not remove their Elfblooded feat's benefits), and the Elven language (they learn to speak it, and if not illiterate, to read and write it). However, in that case it also reduces their multiplier for starting skill points from x4 to just x2.

Gnomeblooded (General)
Your bloodline has some gnomish ancestors.
Prerequisite: Humanoid without the Gnome subtype.
Benefit: You gain the Low-Light Vision of a Gnome. You also get a +1 racial bonus on Listen checks and Craft (Alchemy) checks.
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.

Gnomish Heritage (General)
You have strong elements of gnomish bloodlines mixed into your own.
Prerequisite: Gnomeblooded.
Benefit: Like a Gnome, you may Speak with Animals once per day as a spell-like ability, as per a 1st-level caster, but only to speak with burrowing mammals. Furthermore, you gain a +1 racial bonus on all Concentration checks, and on saving throws against Illusion spells and effects. Lastly, you receive a +3 racial bonus to your maximum hit points, but suffer a -1 racial penalty on Climb, Jump, and Swim skill checks. You inherited a bit of Gnomish resilience, but also some gnome-like shortness and lean musculature.
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.

Halfling-Blooded (General)
Your bloodline has some halfling ancestors.
Prerequisite: Humanoid without the Halfling subtype.
Benefit: You enjoy a +2 racial bonus on Escape Artist, Hide, and Move Silently skill checks. You also gain a +1 racial bonus on Reflex saving throws, but suffer a -1 racial penalty on Strength checks (not Strength-based skill checks), grapple checks, and to your effective Strength modifier for purposes of determining melee damage (before multiplying or halving your Strength bonus if wielding a weapon two-handed or in the off-hand). Your effective Strength score takes a -2 penalty for purposes of carrying capacities. You inherited some of a Halfling's shortness and lithe, lean features.
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.

Halfling Heritage (General)
You have strong elements of halfling bloodlines mixed into your own.
Prerequisite: Halfling-Blooded.
Benefit: You enjoy a +1 racial bonus on Fortitude saving throws and Will saving throws. You also gain this racial bonus on Climb, Jump, and Listen skill checks. Furthermore, you enjoy a +1 racial bonus to Initiative checks, but suffer a further -1 racial penalty on grapple checks (for a total of -2 on grapple checks after stacking this with the Halfling-Blooded feat).
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.

Orcblooded (General)
Your bloodline has some orcish ancestors.
Prerequisite: Humanoid without the Orc subtype.
Benefit: You gain Darkvision with a range of 30 feet. In addition, you enjoy a +1 racial bonus on grapple checks, Strength checks, and Strength-based skill checks, as you inherit some orcish muscle. You also, however, suffer a -1 racial penalty on Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Knowledge skill checks, as you inherit some orcish ego, animosity, poor memory, and slower than average wits.
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.
Alternative: If half-orcs are to be represented by this feat, the feat instead grants a half-orc's Darkvision of 60 feet, and no other bonuses or penalties.

Orcish Heritage (General)
You have strong elements of orcish bloodlines mixed into your own.
Prerequisite: Orcblooded.
Benefit: Your Darkvision from the Orcblooded feat improves to a range of 60 feet. Furthermore, your orcish muscle is improved, yielding a +1 racial bonus to your physical melee damage when dealing such damage in a charge, grapple, or rage (such as during a barbarian rage, or another rage effect). This doesn't stack for charging or grappling during a rage. Your greater burliness is also accompanied by some orcish personality problems and magic deficiencies. You suffer a -1 racial penalty on Charisma checks (not skill checks), and a -2 racial penalty to your effective Intelligence and Charisma scores for purposes of determining bonus spells (if any).
Special: This feat may only be taken at your 1st character level.
Alternative: If half-orcs are to be represented by this feat, the feat instead grants a half-orc's +2 racial adjustment to Strength, -2 racial adjustment to Intelligence, and -2 racial adjustment to Charisma, along with the Orc subtype (but does not remove their Orcblooded feat's benefits) and the Orc language (they learn to speak it, and if not illiterate, to read and write it).
 

One source you might want to check out is Midnight 2Ed. They have something called Heroic Paths, and there are some in there like Giantborn or Feyborn which might give you a little inspiration.

In addition, you could check out the Racial classes found in Savage Species and Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved. Obviously, those change races into classes, but you could use those to design Feat chains...

Which is what was done for Sorcerers (again!) with the Heritage Feats found in Complete Arcane and subsequent publications. Draconic Heritage*, for instance, gives you skills and a couple of other things, but the important thing is that it opens up a host of new feats- Draconic Breath, Draconic Presence, Draconic Skin to name but a few. And there are chains for Fey, Celestial, Infernal and others.

* Draconomicon has a feat that opens the Draconic Heritage feat tree up to non-Sorcerers.
 

@Dannyalcatraz: Thanks for the pointers, I'd totally forgotten Midnight's take on these things! I'm thinking the sorcerer feats from Draconomicon, et al, could be a big help in doing up sorcerous "domains" appropriate to a given Bloodline.

@Arkhandus: Wow, that's a lot to work with, thanks! I really like how they're broken into lower-power "Blooded" feats, and higher-power "Heritage" feats. Great stuff...


FWIW, here's the stuff I cobbled together last night, which seems quite weak, now that I've looked at some of your suggestions. They're modelled on a variant of UA Bloodlines, "Bloodline Levels" from 5th Element Games, so they're of a similar structure and power level. Maybe they'd be more appropriately call "Distant X Ancestor" or "Drops of X Blood" feats? ;)

[sblock]more Bloodline feats:

- each feat enables a character to take levels in the associated Bloodline "class" (Details TBD, but probably modelled on UA "Racial Paragon" rules)

- in my campaign, each also acts as a "sorcerous bloodline", enabling the character to take levels in any spontaneous spell-casting classes.

- all bonuses are typed "racial" bonuses, unless otherwise noted.

- in the following, the term affinity means "gain the indicated racial bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Info, and Perfom skill checks when interacting with the specified type or subtype of creature."

Elfbood (General)
Prerequisite: non-Elf subtype
Benefit:
+1 Search (outdoors)
+1 Spot (outdoors)
+1 Listen
+2 affinity* (Elf)
+1 saves vs. enchantments

Dwarfbood (General)
Prerequisite: non-Dwarf subtype
Benefit:
Lesser Stonecunning (As the Dwarven ability Stonecunning, but with +1 racial bonus, rather than +2)
+2 affinity* (Dwarf)
+1 saves vs. poison

Gnomebood (General)
Prerequisite: non-Gnome subtype
Benefit:
+2 Listen
+2 affinity* (Gnome)
+1 saves vs. illusions

Goblinbood (General)
Prerequisite: non-Goblin subtype
Benefit:
+2 Move silently
+1 Spot
+2 affinity* (Goblinoid)

Halflingbood (General)
Prerequisite: non-Halfling subtype
Benefit:
+1 Climb
+1 Jump
+2 affinity* (Halfling)
+1 morale bonus saves vs. fear

Humanbood (General)
Prerequisite: non-Human subtype
Benefit:
+4 new racial bonus skill points (You may take +1 or +2 racial bonus on any skills that are not already racial skills for you, up to a total of +4 bonus points.)
+2 affinity* (Humans)

Orcbood (General)
Prerequisite: non-Orc subtype
Benefit:
+2 Intimidate
+2 affinity* (Orc)
darkvision, 15 ft. (If you already possess darkvision, extend its range 15 ft.)
[/sblock]
 

The Abyssal Heritor feats in FC1 sound like what you might want, and they're not particularly sorcerer-centric. Similar to the dragon-themed stuff in Draconomicon.
 


There are already one or two feats similar to that....like this one in the SRD and Expanded Psionics Handbook. I think I remember one for extra sp/level in Races of Destiny or Complete Adventurer, or no?

But, whatever:

Humanblooded
You have a human bloodline in your ancestry.
Prerequisite: Humanoid without the Human subtype.
Benefit: You gain 2 extra skill points to spend (do not multiply them for 1st-level). Henceforth, you get 1 additional skill point to spend at every third character level achieved beyond 1st (such as 4th, 7th, and 10th-level, etc.). Lastly, your highest-level class, excluding your race's favored class, is treated as another favored class.
Special: You may only take this feat at your 1st character level.
 


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